Mike Santana Addresses Split From Ortiz, Being Professional And Working Together

On the September 8 episode of AEW Rampage, Mike Santana announced that he’s going to walk down a new path on his own, implying that his team with Ortiz is through. 

The video package led to a back-and-forth on social media between Santana and Ortiz where each man explained their side in why the split between them happened, giving public comment on reported issues between the two men. 

Santana was sidelined for over a year with an ACL injury, but returned alongside Ortiz ahead of AEW All In. The two teamed with Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, & Wheeler Yuta at AEW All In in the Stadium Stampede match.

They had a confrontation on the ramp at AEW Rampage Grand Slam following Santana’s first singles match since the injury. 

Speaking to Jeremy Lambert & Joel Pearl on In The Weeds, Santana was asked the split. 

“In life, there come moments where you look back at everything and are like, ‘This was cool and great accomplishments that we did, but sometimes you want more.’ Sometimes, you don’t want to be comfortable. I’m the type of person where comfortability makes me uncomfortable, and I like that. Wrestling, just like with any job, you want to progress and you want to get better and move up and be a bigger name and do this and that. For me, personally, I realized that it’s about that time. For me. I’m happy with everything that we’ve done and with the run that we had. It was great. We got to accomplish a lot of things together. We came up together, we helped each other get through a lot of things. Sometimes, things happen for a reason. There is a lot of personal stuff, but that’s between him and me and for him and me to deal with. We decided to be professionals and we have a job. We decided to do that job. Did I initially want to do it? No, I didn’t feel like there was a need for me, personally, but we’re pros and we have a job, so let’s do our job and make the best of it and move forward,” he said.

When asked if his time on the sidelines helped offer clarity to the situation and wanting more, Santana replied, “Yeah, but I was feeling like that way before the injury. I was just not in a good place mentally with anything. When you have nothing but time to think and sit with yourself, you have to put a lot of shit in perspective and have to make a lot of decisions. For me, personally, everything happened the way it needed to. I look at this injury and everything, from my dad passing away, from the struggles at work, everything happened the way it needed to happen to get me to where I am today. Today, I am the best version of myself that I’ve ever been. It is what it is. Sometimes you have to go through the shit to get to the light. The injury itself, it did a lot to me. It was definitely one of the things that it opened my eyes to. We all have a window in this business. I’m 32 years old. I’m not old, but I ain’t exactly that young either. I want to make the absolute most of my time and truly make the best of it. I want to be able to look back and be like, ‘I did that’ and be content and happy with what I’ve done. At the end of the day, my main thing now is growing and having fun doing it. I always said, just like with any job and profession, if you ain’t working to move up or get promoted or be bigger than what you are, what the hell is the point, what are you doing? Not everybody has that same mindset, and that’s okay. I’m just speaking of myself.”

Santana & Ortiz have been together since the beginning of AEW when they debuted as Proud N Powerful at AEW All Out 2019. They previously teamed on the independent scene and in IMPACT Wrestling before signing with AEW. 

Santana will be in singles action at Warrior Wrestling on October 6 when he takes on Bryan Keith. Fans can learn more by clicking here. 

Watch the full interview with Santana in the video above.